The invention generally relates to methods and systems for managing documents electronically and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing maintenance of product data at a central location and the transmission of the data to disparate information systems.
Most business entities have a perpetual need to exchange data among other internal departments and external business partners and affiliates. Manufacturers, for example, have a constant need to interchange their product data both internally and externally in order to keep production flowing efficiently. As business arrangements become more complex, it becomes important to carefully organize data that is shared among different entities.
Problems are particularly troublesome in the manufacturing setting, when changes in product specifications and information related to products or components are changed. Businesses produce what is known as a change order to remedy such a situation. There are several types of change orders. Two such examples that are commonly used in product development environments are engineering change orders (“ECOs”) and manufacturing change orders (“MCOs”). ECOs usually involve changes in the design of a product or component that relates to its intended function or purpose. MCOs are typically changes that relate to the manufacturer. It is often important to incorporate change orders as quickly as possible once they are released, if not immediately, in order to save time and money in the business process.
To complicate matters further, these entities often exchange information electronically on different and incompatible formats. Many businesses resolve this problem by augmenting their information systems to actually exchanging paper documents among entities. This of course seems absurd in light of modern day advancements in computer technology. However, most businesses that focus on producing products are reluctant to change their business practices at the administration level in fear of inhibiting their product flow. In order to gain acceptance by businesses, any new method of exchanging data needs to be simple, easy to implement without disrupting ongoing business and virtually error free.
One approach is to employ an electronic data interchange (“EDI”). An EDI is a dedicated information exchange system that is custom designed to securely exchange data between two business entities. One problem with this method is that it is limited to two parties. This is not helpful for diverse business relationships having multiple facets. The rigid system makes it difficult to share information, especially when multiple partners contribute information among a complex supply chain of component parts. To further complicate matters, the parameters of these components are subject to change by separate interested entities, such as engineering and manufacturing. To expand such a system for access to more than two business entities would require extensive customization to support the disparate systems.
Additionally, several file and data management applications exist for organizing information in remote locations. Companies such as Oracle, SAP, Baan, Manman, and others have developed different types of information management systems called enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Most of these systems run on old legacy systems such as mainframes and other large dedicated computer systems. These systems are very rigid, not providing flexibility for different configurations. Also, many companies use several of these different and disparate systems, which are unable to share information compatibly.
For example, some applications require that data be transferred in a horizontal manner, where the data file is delivered having information that appears in a format of rows extending from left to right if, for example, viewed on a user interface. In contrast, other files require data to be transferred in a vertical format, that being a series of data in a single column when viewing the data in a user interface. Accordingly, these systems, being inflexible, will accept and send data.
Another approach could be to develop a standard data format that would require all systems to support it. Unfortunately, this would be an inflexible system that would constantly run into problems with older systems in its implementation. These old systems would still need to be rewritten and possibly customized to support the standard format. Thus, this is an inadequate solution to the problem. It would be more useful if data could be sent to these disparate systems from a single source, regardless of the format requirements at the receiving end of the data. This would obviate the need to modify these systems so that they are compatible with a central data management system.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus that can access centralized information and allow access to and transmission of information such as change orders according to established business relationships in an organized and useful manner. As will be seen below, the invention does this in an elegant manner.